Composers

Jay C. Batzner | EMM programming director

Jay C. Batzner is currently on the faculty of Central Michigan University where he teaches music technology, electronic music composition, and music theory courses. Prior to this position Dr. Batzner was on the faculty of the University of Central Florida, Kansas City Kansas Community College, Metropolitan Community Colleges (Kansas City area), and Indiana University Southeast. He earned his doctorate in composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City and holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Louisville and the University of Kansas.

Jay's music is primarily focused around instrumental chamber works as well as electroacoustic composition. His music has been recorded on the Capstone, Vox Novus, and Beauport Classical labels and is published by Unsafe Bull Music. Dr. Batzner has received many honors for his compositional work, including awards or mentions from the Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (2008), the Areon Flutes International Composition Competition (2009), the VI Concurso Internacional de Miniaturas Electroacusticas (2008), the London International Film Festival (2008), and the UK Percussion Ensemble Composition Contest (2007). His video collaboration with visual artist Carla Poindexter, Carnival Daring-Do, has been screened at over two dozen film festivals and multimedia venues including the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Art, the Third Practice Festival, and the Raindance, Moondance, Palm Beach International, and Fresno Filmworks Film festivals. Jay's podcast of electroacoustic music, The Unsafe Bull podcast, was nominated for a Weblog award for Best Podcast of 2007.
Outside of his musical activities, Jay is a sci-fi geek, a burgeoning seamster, a home brewer, a claw hammer banjoist, and a former juggler.

Jason Bolte | EMM technical director

Jason Bolte is an Assistant Professor of Music at Montana State University where he teaches courses in composition and music technology. Jason is a member of the organizational board of the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, and a founding board member and past President of the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance. Jason earned a B.M. with an emphasis in Music Engineering Technology and a M.M. in Music Composition from Ball State University. He also holds a D.M.A. in Music Composition from the University of Missouri - Kansas City Conservatory of Music and Dance, where he was aChancellor’s Doctoral Research Fellow, a School of Graduate Studies Dean’s Doctoral Fellow, and anOvation Scholar. Before joining the faculty at MSU, Jason taught at the University of Central Missouri and the Kansas City Kansas Community College.

A composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, his work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America and Asia. In the summer of 2007, he was an Associate Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Master Artist Denis Smalley. Jason’s music has received awards and recognition from the International Competition for Composers "Città di Udine" (Finalist: 2010), ISCM Miami Section, World New Music Days (Selection 2010), VII ConcursoInternacional de MiniaturasElectroacusticas (Finalist: 2009), 2nd. International Electroacoustic Music Contest – CEMVA (Third Prize: 2008), 9th Electroacoustic Composition Competition Música Viva (Prizewinner: 2008), Bourges International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sonic Art (Selection: 2006, 2008), ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission Competition (Second Prize: 2008), ETH Zurich Digital Arts Week Soundscape Competition (Recognition: 2007), Music Teachers National Association and Missouri Music Teachers Association (Missouri Composer of the Year/Commission: 2007), and International Society of Bassists Composition Competition (First Prize, Media: 2005). Jason’s music is available on the Vox Novus and Miso Records labels.
More information is available at www.jasonbolte.com.

Ian Corbett | EMM festival director/technical director

Dr. Ian Corbett is the Coordinator of the Audio Engineering Program, and Assistant Professor of Music Technology and Audio Recording at Kansas City Kansas Community College. He also owns and operates "off-beat-open-hats - recording and sound reinforcement", specializing in servicing the needs of classical and jazz ensembles in the Kansas City area. As an audio engineer, Ian's credits include releases on Innova, ICA, Look at You Records, and many non-commercial releases. He is a Co-Director and the Technical Director and Sound Engineer for Electronic Music Midwest, an electronic music festival held in Chicago and Kansas City. Ian previously spent several summers as the Assistant Manager of the Presentations (Audio) Department at Interlochen Center for the Arts. He has provided sound reinforcement for many headline artists including Bill Cosby, BB King, the Count Basie Orchestra, Dennis DeYoung (orchestra engineer), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Nanci Griffiths, Buddy Guy, The Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, The Kings Singers, Marilyn Maye, Jane Monheit, Randy Newman, Clark Terry, Nanci Wilson and many opening acts. He has provided sound system support for artists including the Boston Pops Orchestra, Canadian Brass, Chicago, The Chieftains, Rosemary Clooney, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Chris Isaak, Diana Krall, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Lisa Loeb, Kenny Loggins, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, the Neville Brothers, Bob Newhart, Peter, Paul and Mary, the Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Joshua Redman, Take 6, and Dwight Yoakam. Ian authors articles on audio recording related subjects occasionally for Sound On Sound magazine ("Europe's number 1 selling recording magazine"), most recently a multi-media article on audio mastering published on their first DVD + magazine issue. Since 2004 he has been a member of the Audio Engineering Society's Education Committee, and in 2006 mentored students at the AES' Convention in San Francisco, CA.

Ian's composition credentials include a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, a Fellowship Diploma from the London College of Music, and an M.M. degree from Emporia State University, KS. He has works published by Emerson Edition, HoneyRock Publishing, London College of Music and Media, Penfield Music Commission, Watermark Press, and his music appears in "Theory Essentials", and new regularcharacterset book by Dr. Connie Mayfield (Schirmer). He has works released on Mark Records and Miso Records labels. His competition successes include an Honorable Mention in the 2002 ASCAP Morton Gould Competition, First Prize in the 2002 Musica Viva Electroacoustic Music Competition (Lisbon, Portugal), First Prize in the 1999 Penfield Music Commission Project Composition Contest, and First Prize in the 1998 Hastings College Jazz Ensemble Composition Competition. In 1994 Ian was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Jazz at Indiana University.

A saxophonist and clarinetist, Ian has performed in venues such as Sydney Opera House (Australia), Valencia's Palau de Musica (Spain), and London's Royal Festival Hall, and for many radio broadcasts in the United Kingdom. He holds a Licentiateship Teaching Diploma (clarinet) and Associateship Performance Diploma (alto saxophone) from the London College of Music. Ian also plays an electronic wind instrument, integrating technology into many of his live performances. In 1994, he produced and staged a multi-media concert of commercial studio works in the Mumford Theater, Cambridge, UK. As a studio musician, his saxophone playing (and horn arrangements) are featured on several deep-house tracks, released in 2002 on the Viva and Hed Kandi labels, and in 2004 his solo compact disc "If That's You", was released by off-beat-open-hats.

Mike McFerron | EMM festival director

Mike McFerron is an associate professor of music and composer-in-residence at Lewis University in the Chicago area. He has been on the
faculty of UMKC and the Kansas City Kansas Community College, and he has served as resident composer at the Chamber Music Conference of
the East/Composers’ Forum in Bennington, Vt. McFerron is founder and co-director of Electronic Music Midwest.

David D. McIntire was born in upstate New York and has had some training on the clarinet. Weekly exposure to Protestant hymnody and performing in a small town band were experiences that provided his entry into music. Later encounters with the music of Charles Ives offered new perspective to these modest origins. Hearing the music of Sibelius in the fifth grade also made a deep impact. He has maintained his livelihood through playing, teaching, composing, and writing about music. Has had an inexplicable interest in electronic and modern music since his early teen years, to the exasperation of several of his teachers. Also played clarinet and saxophone in a number of eccentric and overly idealistic musical groups, most notably the Colorblind James Experience, the Whitman/McIntire Duo, and the Hotheads. He holds music degrees from Nazareth College of Rochester, Ithaca College and recently received a DMA in composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City where he was awarded a Preparing Future Faculty Fellowship. He is also completing a master’s degree in musicology at UMKC; his thesis is on the postminimalist style known as Totalism. His research interests include soundscape composition, minimalism and postminimalism, the "American Mavericks" tradition, and the music of Harrison Birtwistle. He also serves on the boards of Electronic Music Midwest and newEar Chamber Ensemble.

Anthony Reimer

Originally an orchestral French Horn player hailing from Indiana, Tony has spent most of the last 20 years freelancing in live theatre as a composer and sound designer. His work has been heard on stages and at festivals across the country and internation- ally. He completed his undergraduate work at Ball State University, received a Master's in Computer Music and New Media from Northern Illinois University and is currently pursuing a doctorate in Music Composition at the University of Illinois.

Robert Voisey | EMM organization advancement director

"The word 'viral,' comes to mind as a trendy but disquietingly
accurate image for Robert Voisey's infectious enthusiasm. He is
always ready to mutate and reinfect the process as indicated to
maintain the highest degree of project fever" -60x60: netsuke for
the musical mind -- Richard Arnest, Sounding Board, Spring
2011.

"With few opportunities and much competition, young
composers show creativity in just getting heard." And in Chris
Pasles's article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is
highlighted as one of those composers.

Composing
electroacoustic and chamber music, Robert Voisey's aesthetic oscillates from
the romantic to Post Modern Mash-Up. His work has been
performed in venues throughout the world including: Carnegie
Hall, World Financial Center Winter Garden Atrium, and Stratford
Circus in London.

Robert Voisey is also the Director of the 60x60 project, an international electronic concert series promoting thousands of composers throughout the globe.
He is also the Director of both the Composer’s Voice concert series, as well as the Fifteen Minutes of Fame project.

Performers

Kaoru Ikeda

Kaoru Ikeda, dancer, choreographer and teacher,
originally from Japan, was graduated from New York
University, Tisch School of the Arts with Master of Fine
Art in Dance with Rotary International Ambassadorial
scholarship and NYU Tisch Grad school scholarship. Her
works of "perfectly realized dance" (offoffoffdance) have
been shown in NYC, Japan and Mexico. She works with
various dance projects and artist in US, Mexico, South
Korea and Japan as a dancer, choreographer and
assistant. Recently, she was invited "Solioquios y
Dialogos Bailados 2012, Centro Cultural Los talleres" as a
dancer and "Viculacion Dancistrica Professional" as a
guest Choreographer in Mexico.
More information: http://kaoruikeda.web.fc2.com

Scott Roche

Scott Roche, baritone, debuted the role of Colonel Jim Thompson in the world premiere of Tom Cipullo'sGlory Denied for which the New York Times noted his warm baritone voice. Recently he performed the role of Tristan in Mike McFerron’sLoving Is at Lewis University’s Arts and Ideas series, and performed in several of Christian McLeer’s short operas for a television program about the composer. In past seasons Scott has appeared as a soloist with the National Chorale at Avery Fisher Hall and has been featured on two of RTB’s Opera Shorts at Carnegie Hall. Scott is a recipient of the Robert StarerAward for performance of a work by a living composer. On previous Composer’s Voice concerts, Scott has presented the world premiere of Victor Frost's 8 Poems by Amy Clampitt for Baritone and String Quartet, as well as the New York premiere of Rodney Sharman's Crossing Over.

Program Notes

Electric Trains

Robert Voisey's idea and project 60x60 has been described as “mad” by the New York Times and publications around the world.
Besides founding and directing 60x60, Voisey composes/curates the one hour “macro-compositions” consisting of 60 one minute works from different composers/sound artists. He has created over 25 one hour mixes which have been performed hundreds of times in more than 20 countries in performances, radio, and Television. His own 60 second miniatures have been included in several mixes including: “New York,” “Ursa Minor,” “Electric Trains,” “Sagittarius,” “tongues,” “We are all 60x60,” “ripples in sand,” and “Executive Decision.”

Vocals by Angela McGary

Duration :60

Constellations (Mini-EMM MIX)

“Constellations” is a collage project of Robert Voisey with ach Constellation Mix uses a ‘mobile’ form comprising of one minute ambient miniatures.
The ambient minitature us vocal samples from Robert Voisey himself both with and without electronic processing. Consistent with mobile form each constellation mix changes with each performance and is titled for the venue where it was debuted.

Duration 2:30

States

A post-modern project of Rob Voisey is his “States” project inspired by Jon Nelson’s 50/50.
“States” is a collection of 50 second mash-ups consisting of sound collage, featuring post consumer audio. Voisey’s piece “Oregon” was selected and featured on the "50/50" CD release by Recombinations/mnartists 2010 with 49 other DJ’s composers, and sound artists. “New York,” another miniature from the “States” project, is part of the 60x60 (2010) International Mix and received debuts at London.’s Stratford Circus as well as in St Louis and Japan.

Duration 150 seconds

Three Improvisatory Groovescapes for multi-channel surround sound and instrument

These short entertaining miniatures were originally conceived to present different concepts of 5.1 imaging and soundstage techniques in the fixed media part. However, today they will be presented in stereo. The instrumental part explores different improvisatory concepts ranging from suggesting clichéd contemporary techniques, through to jazz and funk. Drum performances from "Tower of Funk" by David Garibaldi.

Performer: Ian Corbett, alto sax

Duration 5:00

The Pornography of Unfettered Optimism

The text is by my friend Michael Ives. The voice on the piece is my wife, Michelle Allen McIntire.

The Last Question

Inspired by the Isaac Asimov short story from which it takes its
title, this work began as a contemplation of entropy through the
exploration of the sounds resulting from breaking and broken glass.
However, attempts to set these sounds in an entropic context proved
frustrating. Instead, the work turns to the art of glass-blowing as the
source of its narrative. Thereby, affording its composer an appreciation
for the genesis of the glass by examining its chaotic end, inadvertently
echoing Asimov's story.

Blue Jaunte

The inspiration for this work comes from Alfred Bester's sci-fi classic The Stars My Destination.
Gully, the anti-hero of the story, is taken to the prison Gouffre Martel, a place of total darkness and isolation. Many inhabitants of the prison become mad within this total isolation and end their lives with a “blue jaunte” in which they teleport themselves into nothingness (teleportation is a common inherent skill in Bester's book and the total darkness of Gouffre Martel prevents the prisoners from successfully teleporting to freedom). Due to an acoustic anomaly in Gully's cell, he hears whispers from another prisoner several miles away and begins to have conversations with her. This personal contact, the sound of another's whispers, strengthens Gully's resolve to stay alive and attempt and escape from the inescapable prison. In this piece, we are with Gully in total isolation. Around him are the sounds of “blue jauntes.” Gradually, whispers creep in and sooth the tension and despair Gully is feeling.

Ludwig Van Halen

"In some ways, I think this is the greatest thing I've ever made." - Jay Batzner

The Pornography of Unfettered Optimism

"The Pornography of Unfettered Optimism" is a setting of a text by Michael Ives. The voice on the recording is that of Michelle Allen McIntire. I take Ives's poem to be a study in how any thing can become "pornographic" when exaggerated to an excess far beyond a moderate norm. Perhaps even optimism can become pornographic, if detached from its moorings in reality. I AM "boiling my moods, in a tallow of forgiveness..."

Michael Ives is a writer and teacher living in the Hudson Valley. His poems have been published widely in numerous publications and in the collection The External Combustion Engine (Futurepoem Books). He was a founding member of the noted language/performance group F'loom, whose work was featured on National Public Radio, the CBC and included in the international sound poetry anthology, Homo Sonorus. He teaches at Bard College.

David D. McIntire is a sound artist and teacher presently based in Kansas City. He is the founder of Irritable Hedgehog Music, a small label dedicated to minimal and electroacoustic music. He has collaborated with Michael Ives on numerous electroacoustic text settings, over a period beginning in 1984.
www.irritablehedgehog.com

Presenters:

Electronic Music Midwest

lectronic Music Midwest is dedicated to programming of a wide variety of electroacoustic music and providing the highest quality performance of electronic media. This annual festival consists of approximately nine short concerts (about 1 hour in length) over the course of a weekend in Autumn. Our goal is to bring together vibrant and interesting artists of all forms, give them a vehicle for their expressions, and a place for them to share ideas with others.

Remarkable Theater Brigade

Remarkable Theater Brigade founded by Christian McLeer, Dan
Jeselsohn and Monica Harte, creates and produces new operas and
musicals and takes children's versions out to special-needs and at-risk
children free of charge.

Remarkable Theater Brigade creates and produces new works including
operas, orchestral pieces, ballets, musicals, and electro-acoustic works and
co-produces the Composer's Voice Concert Series concerts.
Remarkable Theater Brigade was founded in 2002 by Christian McLeer,
Monica Harte, and Dan Jeselsohn.

Jan Hus Church

This is the place you were welcome,
long before you arrived!
www.janhus.org

Vox Novus

Vox Novus promotes contemporary music and its creators through concerts,
recordings, publications, broadcasts, and online publicity.
Vox Novus believes strongly in the intrinsic value of contemporary music,
recognizing it as a force in the advancement of culture and art. Our goal is to
keep music alive by strengthening the connection between composer and
audience, providing greater exposure to new music.

Funding by

Puffin Foundation

Funding also provided by the Puffin Foundation, "...continuing the dialogue between art and lives of ordinary people."